POC clearing issues

POC first vice president Joey Romasanta said yesterday more and more National Sports Associations (NSAs) are falling in line to conform to the principles of conduct, good governance, transparency and ethics as prescribed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) charter with the POC setting a goal to clear up issues involving other groups seeking recognition by early next year.

It’s a clean-up job to straighten the POC house. A case in point was the recent resolution of the Squash Rackets Association of the Philippines (SRAP) which had been suspended for violating stipulations in the By-Laws, particularly with regard to holding regular elections, and not clearly defining the qualifications of membership. With the assistance of POC legal counsel Ramon Malinao and lawyer Anne Enad, the SRAP Constitution and By-Laws were recrafted according to the IOC precepts and elections were held.

“Before, the provision was the Board would determine the membership but now, the qualifications are defined,” said Romasanta. “It was a long process but the standards are finally in place. We assigned Cynthia Carrion of the POC as observer of the SRAP elections and the report was the elections were in order. The report will be officially made to the POC Executive Board on Nov. 11 and once it is accepted, the SRAP Board will be invited to the General Assembly on Nov. 25 to be introduced. The recognition will be affirmed during the General Assembly.”

The SRAP elections were held at the Makati Sports Club last Oct. 28.  Confirmed as eligible to vote were 52 stakeholders, including players, coaches and trainers. Of the 52, 28 were present and 11 sent proxies. Unfortunately, 9 of the 13 absent were affiliated with the previous Board. An attempt was made to reach out to the former Board. Elected to the new Board were Bob Bachmann, Vince Abad Santos, Joey Mabilangan, Jennifer Bacatio, Dondi Verano, Cheli Espiritu Tabuena, Romy Dona, Ichi Reyes and Edgar Balleber. Bachmann was later appointed president, Abad Santos secretary general, Verano vice president, Mabilangan treasurer and Bacatio secretary. Working committees will be formed next week.

The new Board was actually voted in last Aug. 15 but there was no POC observer to legitimize it so another election was held last Oct. 28 with Carrion witnessing the proceedings. Previous SRAP president Alan Tantoco later turned over documents to the new Board, including a manager’s check in the amount of P18,566.01, various documents, two squash rackets and squash grips. A check with the PSC revealed that the former Board had used up P1,005,910 of the 2015 budget of P3,384,731, leaving an unused portion of P2,378,821. Bachmann said he will try to find out if the available budget could be realigned for the next term.

Bachmann said the SRAP has reconstituted the national pool of coaches and players. Head coach is Jaime Ortua with Balleber and Jun Paganpan as assistant coaches. The men’s senior players are Robert Garcia, David Pelino, Mac-Mac Begornia, Dondon Espinola and the women’s senior players are Myca Aribado and Alyssa Dalida. The junior pool was declared vacant.

“We will hold nationwide tryouts for all juniors,” said Bachmann. “We will select 10 to 12 to be part of the national training pool. Edgar Balleber will be in charge of the junior development program. We found out that the previous junior pool and coaches had been receiving allowances without any court training for many months. The venue, Manila Boat Club, had disallowed any SRAP training due to non-payment or delayed payment of court fees. We immediately put a stop to the payment of the allowances and salaries because no training was actually being done. The previous Board issued a manager’s check dated last Oct. 6, presumably representing the closing balance of the SRAP bank account. But this wasn’t necessary as we could’ve just changed signatories without closing the account.”

Bachmann said the senior players have been training religiously. “Our coaches are working the team hard,” he said. “Finally, we’ve got honest-to-goodness attendance and training. We will hold an Open National Championship in the elite, division 1, division 2, division 3 and junior classes this month.”

Romasanta said from the POC perspective, it must be clear that a sport association seeking recognition must be related to a legitimate international federation on a one-on-one basis. “We issued a provisional recognition to underwater hockey because a team participated in a competition in Budapest but in our review, it appears there is an association of underwater sports where underwater hockey is part of so there is no separate international federation for underwater hockey,” he said. “We’re also reviewing hockey. Is field hockey separate from ice hockey or are they both under the International Hockey Federation? There is a sport called skyrunning which is a marathon on mountain trails but is it under a separate international federation? Paragliding and hangliding are seeking recognition but are they not part of aerosports? Do they fall under the umbrella of a common international federation?”

Romasanta said different sports associations are knocking on the POC’s doors to avail of travel tax exemption and assistance from the PSC. “We have to be discerning,” he said. “There are sports and there are events. The IOC wants to broaden the scope of sports in the Olympics and lessen events so more countries are able to participate without expanding the number of athletes. Squash, for instance, has a good chance to entering the Olympics in 2020.”

Romasanta said in the first World Beach Games in San Diego in 2017, surfing may be introduced. “We are informed that there are a million surfers in Japan,” he said. “There is also talk of introducing E-sports with 80 percent of the youth exposed to events like video-gaming. But we want to encourage our youth to play sports not just do video games.”